DESCRIPTION:
Lava Butte Vicinity, Oregon

LavaButte84_lava_butte_near_bend_oregon_10-01-84.jpg
Lava Butte, located south of Bend, Oregon, as seen from Highway 97.
USGS Photograph taken on October 1, 1984, by Lyn Topinka.
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This cinder cone rises 500 feet from the surrounding forest floor offering breathtaking views of the Cascades. At the 5000-foot summit is a fire lookout and visitor rest area with interpretive displays. Turn left from Lava Lands Visitor Center parking and follow signs to Lava Butte. The Butte is closed to trailers due to inadequate parking.

Lava Butte rises 500 feet above the visitor center. This cinder cone erupted 7,000 years ago and covered over nine square miles with lava. The butte offers a panoramic view of central Oregon, including a spectacular view of the Cascade Range and the northwest flank of Newberry. An interpretive trail circles the crater rim.

About 7000 years ago, a dozen or so lava flows and cinder cones erupted from fissures on the flanks of Newberry Volcano. An excellent example is Lava Butte, a 500-foot-high cinder cone south of Bend along Highway 97. A road spirals to the top providing a grand vista of volcanic country. Here, gas-charged molten rock sprayed volcanic foam (cinders) into the air. These fell back into a pile to form Lava Butte. As the eruption proceded, the amount of gas (mostly water vapor) contained in the molten rock decreased and lava poured out the south side of Lava Butte and flowed 6 miles downhill. The lava spilled into the nearby Deschutes River forming lava dams in some places and shoving the river westward out of its channel in others.

More than 400 cinder cones and fissure vents have been identified on the flanks of Newberry -- few other volcanoes in the world contain so many ...

Most of the cinder cones are well preserved owing to their high porosity and consequent absorption rather than runoff of water. Larger cones are as much as 500 feet high, typical cones are 200 to 300 feet. Most are marked by summit craters and flows emerge from their bases. Cinders dispersed by prevailing winds during eruptions form aprons extending leeward from some cones such as Lava Butte. ...

Lava Butte (elevation 4,970 feet). The basaltic andesite flow derived from Lava Butte extends northward more than 5 miles and westward 3 miles to the Deschutes River. ... It is one of many basaltic andesite flows on Newberry that have carbon-14 ages of about 6,100 years. ... The lava flow emerges from the south side of the butte.

Halfway between Bend and Sunriver, the geologic wonders of Newberry National Volcanic Monument start to unfold. First and most obvious is Lava Butte and the Lava Lands Visitor Center. Operated seasonally by the U.S. Forest Service, Lava Lands provides an excellent orientation to the volcanic landscape with interpretive displays and trails, guided tours and a spectacular view from the top of the butte. One mile south from Lava Butte, Lava River Cave is Oregon's longest intact lava tube. You can explore this mile-long phenomenon with lanterns and flashlights, warm clothes and good walking shoes. Across the highway from the turn-off to Sunriver, a nine-mile dirt road winds up to Lava Cast Forest. Here a one-mile, self-guided nature trail unveils a "living museum of volcanic landscapes," as well as the story of 6,000-year-old Newberry Crater.

Lavas from Newberry Volcano and a few other sources cover large areas east and north of Bend. Some poured into canyons and flowed down them for tens of miles. Most of these lavas are a few hundred thousand years old and retain original surface features such as tumuli (lava blisters), pressure ridges, and pressure plateaus. Many contain caves called lava tubes. Lava once flowed through these tubes to feed the spreading front of the lava flows. A good example is Lava River Cave along Highway 97 south of Bend.

Lava Butte and Lava Lands Visitor Center: Eleven miles south of Bend on U.S. Hwy 97, Lava Butte is a unique, extinct volcanic cone with a paved road to the top providing and outstanding view of the Cascades. Lava Lands Visitor Center offers automated displays and slide shows describing the history of lava areas. Three interpretive trails around Lava Butte's Crater, over the lava flow and through adjoining pine forest. Naturalist on duty.

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